The Life Of A Beretta Man: Why Gun Control Measures Misunderstand America

When Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) signed sweeping gun-control legislation into law last week he finished a mistake that is anti-business, that weakens an individual right and that attacks an iconic image of the self-made American, someone who stands for what was once called the “American way.”

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley speaks to advocates of stricter gun control laws as they rally at the Maryland State House on March 1, 2013 in Annapolis, Maryland. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

O’Malley’s support for gun-control is certainly founded in politics in his very blue state, but it’s also based on a misunderstanding of America. First, the legislation Governor O’Malley signed will—after October 1—ban 45 specific types of commonly owned semi-automatic firearms, mandate the reporting of lost or stolen firearms and ban the sale, manufacture, purchase or transfer of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The NRA says it will go to court to argue that portions of the law are unconstitutional.

Beretta Holding, which manufactures firearms in Accokeek, Maryland, put out a press release last week that says, “The question now facing the Beretta Holding companies in Maryland is this: What effect will the passage of this law—and the efforts of Maryland government officials to support its passage—have on our willingness to remain in this State?” Beretta then hints at an answer to this question: “Prior to introduction of this legislation the three Beretta Holding companies located in Maryland were experiencing growth in revenues and jobs and had begun expansion plans in factory and other operations. The idea now of investing additional funds in Maryland and thus rewarding a Government that has insulted our customers and our products is offensive to us so we will take steps to evaluate such investments in other States.”

That’s a response to the anti-business portion. Connecticut recently made the same mistake, which has since prompted Colt, Mossberg and Stag Arms to begin considering moving out of Connecticut. Colorado also passed legislation that made products from manufacturers within its borders illegal for its citizenry to purchase. This caused Magpul Industries and HiViz Shooting Systems to leave Colorado, just as they warned they would.

Gov. O’Malley, however, likely understands that his decision to sign this legislation will harm and maybe drive businesses out of Maryland; after all, the leadership at Beretta made this clear during public hearings and in editorials.

Gov. O’Malley must also understand that banning popular firearm types and placing onerous requirements on law-abiding citizens is restricting an individual right protected in the U.S. Bill of Rights. After all, Sarah Merkle, a 15-year-old Maryland resident, became a YouTube sensation after she said as much during a public-comment session in the Maryland State House—the very place George Washington resigned his commission as commander of the Continental Army after using arms to win American freedom. (To see it on YouTube log on here.) Sarah said, “By signing this legislation [Gov. O’Malley], you are not signing away gun violence but instead confiscating American citizens of our constitutional rights.”

Nevertheless, Gov. O’Malley signed the legislation. When he did, he made a more fundamental mistake, a mistake he and other anti-gun-freedom politicians likely don’t understand, but that will harm them at the polls—it was this same misunderstanding of America that caused Al Gore to lose his home state in his quest to be president, which thereby cost him the presidency.

To understand this mistake, consider the Beretta man. He has a shotgun that’s a work of art. It might be an over/under with a grainy walnut stock, blued metal and engravings of a bird dog and maybe a pheasant on its receiver. Or it might be a semi-automatic Benelli (a Beretta-owned company) with a carbon-fiber stock and inertia-driven action. In either case, the Beretta man stands with his back straight and the shotgun in the crook of his arm. He is wearing a shooting vest and shooting glasses. He has class. He is how James Bond would look if he went skeet shooting. He’s sophisticated, but hardly a snob. He has what the Spanish call duende, a characteristic James Michener said is almost indefinable, as it means something with taste, refinement, beauty, perfection and elegance all in just the right proportion and with no showiness at all. He is what the Japanese mean when they use the word shibui, which is something a Samurai tried to embody, but only could manage in fleeting moments when life and art meet before again separating with a bad gesture or misstep.

Of course, he isn’t any more real than James Bond. But what archetype is? He’s an American icon men want to be. He’s an ideal never reached but, if you do everything right, might be you for just a manly moment when you shoot a perfect round and thereby master yourself. In that moment a Spaniard might proclaim, “Gracia.” This is another word that deals not with things but with the essence of things and so is fleeting in an empirical age that trusts science to answer everything for us while disdaining the effervescent quality of philosophy. Though now misunderstood by op-ed writers at The New York Times, even the fashion set is aware of the Beretta man. Beretta, after all, has stores in Milan, Paris, London and New York. Oh, there’s one in Dallas, too.

Of course, there is also a Beretta woman. Her lines of clothing are just as iconic. Though she doesn’t follow the modern protocol for what a woman should look like to be sexy, Beretta’s attire on a lady with an over/under shotgun can make the Beretta man forget himself more than any Kardashian ever could.

Beretta was founded in 1526, a year before Machiavelli died. Beretta is still family owned. Beretta saw Michelangelo, Casanova and Mussolini go. They actually have a castle, the Beretta Castle. They set a standard and hold onto it.

During a tour of its Maryland plant last winter Matteo Recanatini, web & social media manager for Beretta in the U.S., said to me, “The Beretta family approves every clothing design, every tweak to every firearm. They’re conscious that the Beretta image is iconic, an ideal. Everything has to perfectly fit that image and to function flawlessly.”

Matteo, an Italian, was acknowledging there is a different way of looking at guns and American gun culture than some blue-state politicians suggest. This image is what President Barack Obama tried to represent when the White House leaked a photo of him “shooting skeet” with a shotgun held too horizontal for skeet shooting and with a choke missing from the bottom barrel (it takes two for skeet)—clear signs the shot was a stunt. Instead of being the Beretta man, Obama became a laughable parody of something he doesn’t understand, but at least on some level he knows such an archetype exists.

What he doesn’t seem to grasp is that, to people who want to be a Beretta man, or a Winchester man, or a Colt man … guns aren’t a negative thing; they’re a manly a thing a real man knows how to use safely and well. And therein lies the political miscalculation of anti-gun-freedom politicians.

Now here’s a big twist Obama and the rest don’t comprehend: there’s another Beretta man. He’s a true man of action who’d fit in a modern action movie. He has a semi-automatic handgun, maybe a Beretta Px4 Storm Special Duty .45 ACP. He might even have a semi-automatic rifle the left would call an “assault rifle.” He doesn’t see such firearms in a negative way. To him they’re cool. To him it is a blast to shoot. To him, semi-automatic guns have been the ultimate home-defense guns since they were first designed more than 100 years ago. To him, using a firearm properly is a sign of responsibility, of maturity.